For more than a year now, real estate data analytics site NeighborhoodX has worked with Curbed Austin to take a look at home-buying prices on a neighborhood level, using both cost per square foot and overall asking price to get a more complete picture of the market on a micro-level.
With some exceptions, these studies have focused on central and west Austin neighborhoods, some of which tend to be priced higher than areas farther from the city center, especially to the north and east.
Now we’re expanding out from there a bit, and today we’re looking at Onion Creek. Located about 10 miles southeast of Downtown, the neighborhood is bounded by I-35 on its west, starting just south of Southpark Meadows on the opposite side of the highway. The southern border runs along FM 1327 to Thanton Road, which it forms the eastern border, jogging west to Old Lockhart Highway and Bluff Springs Road until it hits the creek bed, which more or less forms its northern border as it heads back to I-35.
Onion Creek is a fairly typical, suburban-type neighborhood, with one notable exception: Significant sections of it are prone to flooding, and there have been some destructive floods in the area several times in the past. Due to frequent flooding, the city of Austin updated its flood plain maps and purchased some of the land and homes that were in them. (Just to note the obvious: Many homes in Onion Creek are not in flood-prone areas/floodplain—but it’s a good idea to check a map if you’re looking to buy there.)
The current average asking price in Onion Creek is $138 per square foot. The individual properties that make up this average range fairly tightly, from a low of $97 per square foot (10101 Pinehurst Drive, a stately single-family home on the market for $449,000) to a high of $181 per square foot (2210 Onion Creek Parkway #1201, a two-bedroom condo asking $274,900).